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“Sir, a messenger has come from Jowl,” Lyx said to Draven, who was pacing about his throne room restlessly.
“Let him in. It gives me something to do,” Draven said coldly, turning to face his second in command.
A soldier clad in the standard black armor stepped into the room, careful to listen to Lyx’s advice and moving around the trap step.
“I have word from Jowl, sir,” the soldier said nervously.
“Yes yes, I know that much. What does Jowl have to say?” Draven asked.
“Oh, right, sir! Well, he is sad to inform you that a band of three adventurers took out one of his bands, which included his top advisor. He wishes for another one to be sent immediately,” the soldier explained.
Draven turned a cool glare upon the messenger. With lightning-fast speed, the “bracelet” he wore on his right arm sprung to life, extending the short distance between the two and coiling around the soldier’s neck. The magical whip tightening and lifted the soldier into the air. “We do not have magical experts to throw out left and right…” he said calmly, and with a flip of his wrist, the whip snapped the messenger’s neck and tossed the lifeless body onto the floor. Obediently, the sentient whip coiled back around Draven’s arm as he walked towards his throne.
“Take the garbage away and find another messenger. Have him inform Jowl that he will receive no such assistance and that he should take better care of important figures,” Draven ordered Lyx.
“Yes, of course, sir. One matter before I go, however,” Lyx said, bowing slowly.
“What is it?” Draven asked.
“We also got word from the lower levels that they found some kind of sanctum that they wish for you to check out. It is somewhere under the sub tower complex,” Lyx informed.
“I see…fine then. I shall go tend to this matter and you get the messenger. If anyone comes looking for me, deal with them as you see fit,” Draven said, slowly walking out of the throne room.
Lyx gave another bow and left the throne room right behind Draven.
When Draven reached the lower levels of the sub tower complex, it didn’t take him long to find the designated area. Soldiers all stood around a massive doorway in awe. One man, most like the one in charge, greeted Draven and pointed out that he wanted Draven to go inside the doors. Hardly concerned, Draven did just that.
Inside he found a very large, mostly empty room. At the far end stood a large statue work of some epic battle, that of which involved Cloud City soldiers against some sort of demons. On floor level stood what seemed to be a sealed off doorway with magnificently detailed arches. Atop the arches stood three statues of warriors, probably ancient heroes. The one in the center held a large katana while the one on the left held a glaive and the one of the right held a bow.
Draven absorbed his environment, surprised at the craftsmanship. Finally, he walked up to the arches and looked intently at the wall where a door should be. Right in the middle of this wall was a small, round indention with small tabs of some design within. Draven stared at the tabs for a long moment and realized he had seen that design before. Quickly, he held out the Adept’s Stone and moved it around in his hands. Sure enough, the same design was indented into the stone. Draven slowly moved the stone into position with the indention on the wall, and the two locked perfectly. Suddenly, the stone became stuck to the wall, and despite all of Draven’s efforts, he could not pull it free. The wall moved back a few feet, revealing a hallway behind it. Finally, a crease formed down the wall, splitting it in two vertically. The two pieces now formed slid off in separate directions, leaving the stone to fall on the ground. Ever the quick one, Draven dove forward and caught it before it could.
Before he could stand up, an arrow of lightning slammed into the ground near to his head, too close for comfort. He leaped to his feet and spun around in a single motion, drawing a dagger in his left hand.
His eyes widened with surprise as he stared at the three statues, animated to life, standing in front of him with weapons drawn. Without question, he slipped the Adept’s Stone into a belt pouch and drew out his second knife. “Heh…alright then. I’ve been looking for a good fight!” he declared, rushing for the archer first.
The katana wielding knight dove forward in an attempt to intercept Draven, but the void adept spun away from the attack to the left and spun a dagger at the knight, which smashed into its chest and sent it stumbling backwards.
Another arrow sped by Draven’s face, and he returned his attention to the archer. He charged forward, his right hand extended, and welcomed the coming barrage of arrows. As each one came at him, he absorbed them with a vortex of void energy in the palm of his hand. As he closed the distance between himself and the archer, he pulled back his right hand and tossed it forward suddenly. A massive arrow of lightning sprung forth from his hand, shattering the archer into a pile of rubble.
A glaive sliced the ground in front of Draven, cutting a few strands of hair from his bangs. Draven’s arm whip snapped out, catching the pole of the glaive, pinning it to the ground.
“You should learn not to touch my hair…I like my hair,” Draven said grimly, looking at the cut strands.
With that, he dove upon the glaive knight, slamming away at its neck with his dagger. Just then, Draven noticed that the katana knight was moving again, the dagger that was once in its chest now held back to throw. As knight launched the dagger towards Draven, he held out his right hand, still pounding away at the glaive knight’s neck with the left, and caught it by the handle.
“Thanks…” he mumbled as he began to use the second dagger to stab at the glaive knight. Soon, its head simply tumbled off and the rest of it crumbled to the ground.
The katana knight was already in a charge as Draven landed on the ground softly. Draven waited for the last second, and grabbed the katana knight’s right shoulder. Using the statue’s momentum, Draven leaped over its shoulder and landed safely behind it. To the void adept’s surprise, the statue spun with surprising ease, sending a powerful horizontal strike towards him. He held up both of his daggers and ducked low. The katana knocked both of the daggers from Draven’s hands, but they also kept the blade from going even lower and hitting him.